A GREAT DISASTER

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143768, 17 April 1912, Page 3

A GREAT DISASTER

SINKING OF THE LINES TITANIC.

On Her Malden Voyage. ,

Thirteen- ifisndredi Lives Lest.

1 By' Electric Telegrahh.—Copyright.

LONDON; April 16,

ALL HOPE ABANDONED. MEN GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP. WOMEN AND CHILDREN SAVED. (Received April 17, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 16. Members of tho House of Commons stood bare-beaded as Mr. Asquith read the latest telcgraihs about the loss of the Titanic. He said; “All the boats are accounted for; 675 souls are saved. AVe must brace ourselves to confront an event which appals the imagination. Ho expressed the deep admiration of the House for tho manner in which the best traditions of the sea had bew upheld by the saving of those least able to save themselves. Piteous scenes are being witnessed at the offices of the AA hite Star Company in Cockspnr Street. Relatives have been waiting for hours, and many people from the provinces, failing to, get nows from Liverpool, came to London, but the officials arc only able to point to tho Carpathian’s wireless message that she had found the boats and wreckage only. Similar scenes are occurring at Southampton, of which place practically the whole 903 of the crew are natives, and scarcely a family in town has not lost a relative or friend. CONDOLENCES FROM GERMANY. (Received April 17, 10.45 a.m.) BERLIN, April 16. In the Reichstag, Herr Kaenipf, President, expressed grief with England in connection with tho Titanic disaster. All members rose from their seats as a mark of sympathy. ABNORMAL ICEBERGS. (Received April 17, 8.5 a.m.) OTTAAVA, April 16. Liners arriving at Montreal report abnormal ice in tho North Atlantic. Several vessels met largo icefields off tho Nova Scotia coast. Icebergs in the North Atlantic _ are supplied from tho Greenland glaciers. As these rivers of ice reach the sea vast masses are broken off and drill, away in fleets. Tho bergs are often of enormous size, and as they float with little more than,, one-tenth of their volume above the water, while the submerged portion may be of any’ shape, it is readily understood that they aro a great danger to shipping. The North Pacific is free from icebergs owing to tho shallowness of Behring Strait preventing any but small icebergs, which easily melt, from getting through from tho polar regions. AN UNPARALLELED DISASTER. . The wreck of tho Titanic' took' place on Sunday evening, and the news published to-day takes us to Tuesday evening. Till this afternoon there seemed some hope that better nows might reach us, but the latest reports show that twelve or thirteen hundred lives have been lost. Such an overwhelming loss is quite unprecedented. Tho following are some of tho most serious disasters of the last fifty years; The Atlantic, AVhite Star liner, struck a rock off Cape Sambro Nova Scotia, 560 lives lost; April, 1873. Cospatrick, emigrant vessel, bound for New Zealand, took firo, 470 lives lost; December, 1874. Great Queensland, with 569 persons on board, bound for Australia, cargo of gunpowder, supposed to have exploded off Capo Finisterro; August, 1876. H.M.S. Eurydico, foundered off Islo of Wight, 300 lives lost; March, 1878. Princess Alice, excursion steamer, sunk in collision near Woolwich, between 600 and 700 lives lost; September, 1878. Utopia, emigrant steamer, sunk in gale by collision with H.M.S. Sanson in Gibraltar Harbour, 564 lives lost; March, 1891. Wnirarapa, Union steamer, wrecked on Great Barrier Island, 125 lives lost; October, 1894, Elbe, German Lloyd steamer, sunk in collision with Craithio; 334 lives lost; April, 1896. La Bonrgoyne, French liner, sunk in collision with Cromartyshire 545 lives lost; July, 1898. General Slocum, American excursion steamer, burnt at Long Island Sound, 1000 lives lost; Jnno, 1904. TWO MAIDEN TRIP DISASTERS. DESCRIPTION OF THE TITANIC. Tho maiden voyage of the White Star liner Olympic, 45,000 tons, which shares with her sister ship, the Titanic, tho distinction of being the largest ship afloat, was terminated abruptly last year through a collision in the Solent with H.M.S.. Hawko. And now tho maiden voyago of the Titanic has also endod in disaster.

The Titanic sank. Six hundred and seventy-five of her complement wero saved. It is feared that many have perished. The AVhite Star officials believe that 1500 of the Titanic’s passengers and crew have been drowned.

So far the details of the disaster are meagre and contradictory in character.

It is believed that all the first-class passengers have been saved. This estimate is based by a count of those on board the Carpathia, the Cunard liner to which the Virginian transferred the people rescued by her. it is not known yet whether the Parisian saved any of the passengers or crew.

The vessel cost £1,330,000, and her hull and cargo aro insured for £2,350,000. Reinsurances were effected at 50gns per cent.

The Olympic, which is a sister ship to the Titanic, and is a 22i knot boat, steamed with all speed to the scone of the disaster. She found nothing but wreckage left of the Titanic. Experienced Atlantic voyagers state that they have never before known of ice being met so far south as the scene of the disaster, in such great bulks as how. ■ The ice recently met with has been mostly topless bergs, merely awash in the sea, and difficult to discern. NEW YORK, April 15. Mr. Franklin, vice-president of the White Star Steamship Company, admits that there has been heavy loss of life b'y the wreck of the Titanic. The officers of the White Star Company were besieged by friends of the wealthy Americans who were on board the Titanic. The absence of definite news created an excitement almost amounting to a panic in New York. VESSEL SUNK IN DEEP WATER. (Received April 17, 9.45 a.m.), LONDON, April 16. The Carpathia, which was sailing to New York, picked up 866 persons in the lifeboats, mostly women. Those saved include Mrs. Jacob Aster, Countess Rothes, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, Mr. Bruce Ismay, and Mr, Bohr, the tenuis player. The Titanic has sunk in water two miles deep, between Sable Island and Cape Race. She carried a million pounds’ worth of diamonds and half a million pounds’ worth of pearls. MILLIONAIRES ON BOARD. (Received April 17, 10.5 a.m.) LONDON, April 16. In consequence of the ice, the White Star and other steamers have arranged to cross the Atlantic at a lower latitude. Mr. Norman Craig, M.P., booked a passage by the Titanic, but cancelled it. A prominent hanker estimates that twenty persons of those aboard were worth one hundred million pounds. PATHETIC SCENES IN NEW YORK. THE VIRGINIAN TOO LATE. (Received April 17, 12.30, p.m.) NEW' YORK, April 16. There were pathetic scones all night outside the AVhito Star Line offices. Mr. Vincent Aster, son of Colonel John Jacob Aster, conferred for an hour with the vice-president, and departed in tears. It is understood all' the women and children in the steerage as well ns the saloon were given a chance for life. The men behaved gallantly and went down with the ship. The Virginian arrived too late. No hope remains now that there are any survivors,, other than the 650 first rescued. The ice-cold water made it impossible for any survivors clinging to the wreckage to escape. The women and children spent hours in the open boats, exposed to bitter winds, before being picked up. The wealth on board is estimated as representing two millions sterling, in cargo, jewels and passengers’ personal belongings. SYMPATHY IN FRANCE. (Received April 17, 12.30 p.m.) PARIS, April 16. The office of tho W'hite Star Company is besieged by weeping inquirers. The shipping at Continental ports has its flags at half-mast.

There are now building one ship for the Cunard Company and two for the Hamburg American Company which will

oack bo of about 50,000 tons. So tho record in floating palaces is not likely to be hold long by tbeso ill-starred "White Stars. Tho struggle nowadays is for size, not speed, as in the cate of tho Cnnardors Lusitania and Mauretania.

TITANIC GREETS THE WATER. Both the Olympic and tho Titanic, were built at Belfast by Mason, Borland, and AVolff, Sister ship to the Olympic, tho Titanic was launched at Belfast last Juno, in tho presence of a huge concourse of sightseers. The monster had a launching weight of between 25,000 and 26,000 tons, and, like the Olympic, a gross tonnage of 45,000. There was no christening ceremony when the Titanic left tho yard of Messrs. Ha Hand and Wo) it, A couple of rockets wero lired as the signal for tho release ol the latest leviathan of the ocean, and with the falling of the supporting timbers she glided gracefully into the sea. Directly the valve of tho hydraulic machinery which held her in position Was , Opened, loud cheering broke out on ' ever y side, and the vessels in the lough abounded their syrens. The day was a perfect one, and the yard was crowded by privileged persons ,T° the number of many thousands. On the owners’ stand were many distinguished people, among them Lord and tiaciy Pirrie, who were celebrating their birthdays, Mr. Bruce Xsmav (of Messrs, la may, Imray, arid Co.), and Mr. Pierpant Morgan, head of the International iVHercantile Marine. A PERFECT LAUNCH. .The time of the launch was much quicker than when the Olympic left the 1 arc .oils yard in November last; in fact, it occupied only two seconds over a minute. So perfect wero the arrangements that the Titanic came to a dead stop m almost her own length. Tho Titanic and Olympic are both triplescrew steamers, and they represent tne highest attainment in naval architecture and marine engineering. They stand in a .class by themselves, being not only much larger than any vessels previously constructed, but also embodying the latest! developments in modern propulsion. Tho shell plating of the Titanic is unusually heavy, being for the most part of plates 6ft. wide and 30ft. in length. Tho two (leeks forming the superstructure of tho ship and tho navigating bridge, arc built to ensure a high degree of rigic'ity. SOME OF THE DIMENSIONS. The following are a few of tho dimensions of the Titanic.:—Length, 882 ft.; breadth, 92ft. 6in.; height from bottom of keel So top of captain’s house, 105 ft. 7in. ; heijght from keel to top of tunnel, 175 ft. ICtoi. The number of steel decks is 11, arjd l the component parts are well in keeping with tho dimensions. The rudder weighs 100 tens, and the weight of the casting comprising the stern frame, raider, and brackets amounts to 280 tons, being CO tons more than those of any oti’er steamer.

The largest beam weighs more than four tons, and measures 92ft. The longest stoel plates aro 36ft., and there are two and a-half million rivets in the ship. Eacih engine crank shaft weighs 118 tons; bed plates, 195 tons; each column, 21 tens; the heaviest cylinder, with liner,; 50 tons; and the wing propeller, 38 tons. One hundred and sixtythree tons is the weight of the casting for the tmibiue cylinder and 22 tons of the propeller, which is of solid bronze.

COMBINATION ENGINES,

The Titanic is propelled by a combination of turbine and reciprocating machinery, and her speed is 21 knots—a speed which tlie Olympic developed on her trial runs. Sho has a crew of 850, and can accommodate nearly 3000 passengers. Comfort rather than speed has been tho aim of tho owners, and the internal arrangements are, as is the case of tho sinter ship, of a most gorgeous kind. Bor the saloon passengers there is a verandah restaurant with the lattice-work cunningly entwined with tropical creepers; there are nurseries for the children, a riding school, a swimming bath, an arcade (whore millinery, jewellery, and every other demand will be met.)', a roller skating rink, a gymnasium, a fish pond for the ardent angler,’ a ballroom, a theatre, a fine lounge', and a pretty garden.